Within the circle : an anthology of African American literary criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the present / edited by Angelyn Mitchell.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Mitchell, Angelyn, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

American literature.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

African Americans in literature.

Criticism--United States.

Criticism.

Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem (New York, N.Y.)--Intellectual life--20th century.

Harlem (New York, N.Y.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (545 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1994.

System Details:

text file

PDF

Summary:

Within the Circle is the first anthology to present the entire spectrum of twentieth-century African American literary and cultural criticism. It begins with the Harlem Renaissance, continues through civil rights, the Black Arts Movement, and on into contemporary debates of poststructuralist and black feminist theory. Drawing on a "e from Frederick Douglass for the title of this book, Angelyn Mitchell explains in her introduction the importance for those "within the circle" of African American literature to examine their own works and to engage this critical canon.The essays in this collection—many of which are not widely available today—either initiated or gave critical definition to specific periods or movements of African American literature. They address issues such as integration, separatism, political action, black nationalism, Afrocentricity, black feminism, as well as the role of art, the artist, the critic, and the audience. With selections from Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, W. E. B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Barbara Smith, Alice Walker, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and many others, this definitive collection provides a dynamic model of the cultural, ideological, historical, and aesthetic considerations in African American literature and literary criticism.A major contribution to the study of African American literature, this volume will serve as a foundation for future work by students and scholars. Its importance will be recognized by all those interested in modern literary theory as well as general readers concerned with the African American experience.Selections by (partial list): Houston A. Baker, Jr., James Baldwin, Sterling Brown, Barbara Christian, W. E. B. DuBois, Ralph Ellison, LeRoi Jones, Sarah Webster Fabio, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W. Lawrence Hogue, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, Deborah E. McDowell, Toni Morrison, J. Saunders Redding, George Schuyler, Barbara Smith, Valerie Smith, Hortense J. Spillers, Robert B. Stepto, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, Mary Helen Washington, Richard Wright

Contents:

Introduction. Voices Within the Circle: A Historical Overview of African American Literary Criticism

The New Negro / Alain Locke

The Negro in American Literature / William Stanley Braithwaite

The Gift of Laughter / Jessie Fauset

The Negro-Art Hokum / George S. Schuyler

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain / Langston Hughes

Criteria of Negro Art / W. E. B. DuBois

Our Literary Audience / Sterling A. Brown

Characteristics of Negro Expression / Zora Neale Hurston

Blueprint for Negro Writing / Richard Wright

American Negro Literature / J. Saunders Redding

What White Publishers Won't Print / Zora Neale Hurston

New Poets / Margaret Walker

Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity / Ralph Ellison

Everybody's Protest Novel / James Baldwin

Integration and Race Literature / Arthur P. Davis

The Myth of a "Negro Literature" / LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [523]-525) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822315445

0822315440

9780822399889

0822399881

OCLC:

1139837492